Our 'parents', Agility PR Solutions, decided it was time to update the ol’ dog house, and rather than undergoing a long, painful website renovation, we just moved in with them!

Don't worry - we will continue delivering the most important news and relevant opinion pieces you've come to expect from Bulldog Reporter, we've just made it easier to scan and read articles, especially on mobile devices.

And keep an eye out for our streamlined and mobile-friendly daily email - or opt for our new weekly summary!

Sebastien Van Schalkwyk Joins Viga as Marketing Director

Viga, the Next15 data collection agency, has appointed its first Marketing Director. New board member Sebastien Van Schalkwyk joins from Betsson Group where he was Head of Customer Marketing.

Van Schalkwyk will initially focus on expanding Crowdology, the platform that powers the Viga Audience Access offering. He will aim to build the UK’s largest double opt-in permission based access panel, prior to rolling out the brand worldwide.

It was at Research Now where Van Schalkwyk, then Director of Digital and CRM, expanded the agency’s online panels across 14 markets globally in an 18 month growth period. This included building a cost-effective loyalty programme comprising of over 100 global retailers, ensuring the panel proposition was attractive to media suppliers and recruiting quality panelists to grow the base from 100,000 to over 6 million in his 8-year tenure.

Prior to joining Viga, Van Schalkwyk was based in Malta where, as Head of Customer Marketing, he was responsible for growing the EMEA and LATAM revenues at the Betsson Group. By leveraging experience gained in the market research sector he helped achieve a 6% YoY growth in a highly competitive market space. He implemented real-time data-led marketing programmes which improved overall customer engagement and 5% increases in customer life time value (CLTV).

“Sebastien is a global marketing expert at the top of his game, and he was a clear front runner for the role”, commented Lewis Reeves, Managing Director of Viga. “His experience fully equips him to understand Viga’s direction and ambition. A key facet in building the Viga team is to identify and employ the best talent in absolutely every role, even if that means expanding our search overseas.”

Van Schalkwyk added “I wasn’t looking to get back into market research. But when Lewis sized-up the opportunity of driving Viga’s growth and at the same time disrupt the online panel industry, the decision was easy to make. I’m excited to join a team of highly entrepreneurial experts and with the commitment and support of Next15, the sky is the limit.”

Connect with Us

ABOUT BULLDOG REPORTER

AGILITY PR SOLUTIONS

Agility PR Solutions (now home to Bulldog Reporter!) has the expertise, breadth of solutions and services, and a powerful, patented analytics engine to increase your reach and help you measure the impact of your communications efforts.